The Depression-era musical Gold Diggers of 1933 opens with chorus girls crooning and hoofing their way through a peppy number entitled We’re in the Money. They are rudely interrupted by bailiffs sent to seize the production’s assets, including costumes that, in the hard-boiled words of Damon Runyon, contained insufficient fabric “to make a pad for a crutch”. In the next scene, if memory serves, Ginger Rogers & co are pictured back in their scruffy apartment, heating a single tin of beans over a candle.

Cheerleaders for investment in high-technology business had flourished their pompoms with equal aplomb at leaked news that the UK government would include a £1bn fund in its April Budget. On the day, Alistair Darling, the chancellor, announced the £750m Strategic Investment Fund. That merited a high kick or two, even if the figure was lower than hoped.